Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan earns disappointing NBA rank

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While the Chicago Bulls have not been great under Billy Donovan, many would agree that front office decisions and a lackluster roster have been more at fault for that. Still, in Bleacher Report analyst Lee Escobedo’s rankings, Donovan was placed 21st in the league. That’s lower than a few interesting names:

• David Adelman
• Charles Lee
• Chauncey Billups

“The Florida years still ring bells. Back-to-back NCAA championships will do that. But since coaching in the NBA, Billy Donovan’s been the face of NBA mediocrity,” Escobedo wrote. “In Chicago, he’s managed just one playoff appearance in five seasons, two straight under .500 finishes, and a play-in flameout last season that felt inevitable. Statistically, his Bulls teams have hovered around league average across the board.”

The success hasn’t been there in the NBA for Donovan, but it’s hard to pin down whether or not that’s entirely his fault. Could another coach have made the DeMar DeRozan Zach LaVine core work? That was always a hard sell, and the current roster isn’t rife with star power, either.

“His Oklahoma City tenure told a similar story. Donovan inherited Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, reached the 2016 Western Conference Finals and then watched a 3-1 lead disappear to Golden State. That remains the high-water mark of his NBA career,” Escobedo continued. “So yes, the Bulls’ decision to extend Donovan makes sense from a stability standpoint. He’s steady, if not pedestrian. Even respected by his peers. But under his stewardship, Chicago has remained a treadmill.”

In Escobedo’s eyes, the Bulls could do a lot better. They could also do a lot worse, so it’s not all that surprising that the front office has thrown its lot fully in with Donovan for the foreseeable future.